I had seen in The Denver Post that scheduled Independence Day activities for Civic Center did not mention the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Instead, the symphony was being featured at the Arvada Center on a paid admission basis. When I renewed my support of the symphony for the upcoming season, I asked the representative I was working with about it, and he explained that the city of Denver had not offered the orchestra the grant it wanted for the performance.

While I really like Hazel Miller and her band, and appreciate the Denver Municipal Band and to a lesser extent a cappella, they cannot compare with the CSO. While they may have been less expensive to present, it’s a shame that our great city can’t bring to Civic Center, once a year, a continuation of a wonderful tradition of orchestral music to celebrate our nation’s birthday.

David Swan, Denver

This letter was published in the July 16 edition.

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Young revelers enjoy snacks as they wait for music and fireworks at Denver’s Civic Center last Thursday. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

We attended the Independence Day concert in Civic Center last Thursday for the fifth time. However, this year something was not right. First and foremost, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra had not been engaged for the performance. As I looked at the program for the evening, I could not believe what I was reading. An accumulation of mostly inappropriate music had been chosen for the performance. If the purpose was to celebrate our nation’s founding, as I believe it was, then what was, among other things, a medley of Michael Jackson doing on the card?

I will pay close attention to the selections for next year and hope that the organizers seriously consider returning the CSO for another performance. They do such a magnificent job. Scott O’Neil, we missed you.

Richard Kuberski, Arvada

This letter was published in the July 9 edition.

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A new U.S. citizen holds a U.S. flag during a naturalization ceremony at the Treasury Department on July 3 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong, Getty Images)

Because of the rapid decline of Americans’ knowledge of their own history, there is reason to worry that by 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — precious few citizens will know or care why the Fourth of July is a star-spangled national holiday.

Unfortunately, barely one in 10 American high school students scored proficient in their grasp of U.S. history on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, published in 2011.

Requiring all candidates for a high-school diploma to pass the U.S. Citizenship Exam might be one way to raise public awareness and begin to exert pressure to restore essential knowledge to the K-12 curriculum.

Take a break from your Fourth of July picnic, take a peek at the 20-item version of the U.S. Citizenship Exam, available at citizenshipfirst.us/exam, and see if you agree.

Robert Holland, Arlington, Va.

Don Soifer, Arlington, Va.

The writers are policy analysts with the Lexington Institute.

This letter was published in the July 4 edition.

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Independence Day celebrates America’s escape from the tyranny of British rule. How ironic it was to hear on July 4 that Gordon Brown was asking the English Parliament to limit his own power to declare war. Meanwhile our own executive is overturning the sentence for its political operatives and still considering a pardon, while Cheney insists he is his own branch of government where rules don’t apply. Which system was supposed to be tyrannical again?

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To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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